[KoNgFooCj]

Which area is better, which is better for families/kids. Which has more amenities/ opportunities. You can include surrounding towns if you like.

[goldenage1]

Originally Posted by KoNgFooCj

Which area is better, which is better for families/kids. Which has more amenities/ opportunities. You can include surrounding towns if you like.

Both are terrible urban areas. Parts of Norwich look like a war zone. But if you have to chose, go with somewhere near Norwich like Groton, Waterford, East Lyme, Stonington, etc on the coast. Then the kids can go to the beach. Please check school rates in those towns as I am not familiar with them.

[hvexpatinct]

The Waterbury area has a lot to offer to families. Middlebury/Southbury and Cheshire have some of the best schools in the state, plus there are fancy private schools throughout the area if that's your cup of tea. And there's better access to jobs in Hartford, Westchester, and along the coast.

[BPt111]

Originally Posted by goldenage1

Both are terrible urban areas. Parts of Norwich look like a war zone. But if you have to chose, go with somewhere near Norwich like Groton, Waterford, East Lyme, Stonington, etc on the coast. Then the kids can go to the beach. Please check school rates in those towns as I am not familiar with them.

Norwich is not that bad compare to CT worst

[Stylo]

They are very different areas. It really comes down to what you prefer geographically. There are great towns in each area.

[KoNgFooCj]

Originally Posted by goldenage1

Both are terrible urban areas. Parts of Norwich look like a war zone. But if you have to chose, go with somewhere near Norwich like Groton, Waterford, East Lyme, Stonington, etc on the coast. Then the kids can go to the beach. Please check school rates in those towns as I am not familiar with them.

I was born and raised in Norwich. I've been all around the city from a young age, and I can say the only parts that have seemed pretty scary to me were in the Greenville neighborhood and some surrounding areas. I would say for the most part the city is fairly well kept in most areas. It is a very small city however so even when you see blight, 30 seconds later it doesn't look that bad anymore.

I loved growing up in Norwich because the city and eastern CT in general is very beautiful for the most part, but I hated it more as I got older because I realized how little opportunity there is here for jobs and shopping. It's just below basic. Establishments seemed to have closed down as I got older and Griswold, Jewett city which is a very small town compared to Norwich seems to have more, but I guess I'm just thinking about Lisbon Landing, which is basically a huge open air shopping center 12 miles from Norwich in the middle of nowhere. Groton, which has the same population as Norwich, has like, 3 times more than Norwich in the way of shopping, although, Groton seems to be kind of a suburb of New London, which is in fact smaller than both.

I love Norwich for its natural landscapes mostly. I also have a nostalgic attachment to the area but I've increasingly wished it seemed as big and busy to me as it did when I was a kid. It just seems dead to me apart from 82 running through it and being the closest town to the Casinos. I've been thinking about which towns seem similar but more lively or even looking at other nearby states like New Jersey. Massachusetts is further North and I dislike the cold so I'd rather have it a couple degrees warmer than cooler.

[RoundTableKnight]

I live in Cheshire but grew up in Waterbury's west end near Post U. That area of Waterbury is really nice. I had friends close by as well as in Bunker Hill and Town Plot (also fine areas with low crime.) We all went through the private school system because Waterburys public schools are consistently rated at the bottom of CT. People on this forum are very quick to bash Waterbury but there are still plenty of safe areas for families and things to do. However taxes are stupid high, city government has a extensive history of corruption and the bad areas are indeed very bad.

I'll forever defend my home city but HAVING SAID THAT, you cannot overlook the beautiful towns that surround Waterbury. Middlebury, Prospect and Cheshire all touch Waterbury's border. Wolcott, Watertown and Thomaston are good but not as great. Naugatuck and Plymouth will sometimes get criticized but they're not bad towns at all.

[JayCT]

It’s kind of hard to compare these two metro areas. Waterbury is one of the largest cities in the state and not far from other major employment centers like Hartford and Bridgeport. Norwich is a small city in more remote and quiet eastern Connecticut which is very different. I like both areas but for different reasons. It is a matter of personal opinion which is best. Jay

[KoNgFooCj]

Originally Posted by JayCT

It’s kind of hard to compare these two metro areas. Waterbury is one of the largest cities in the state and not far from other major employment centers like Hartford and Bridgeport. Norwich is a small city in more remote and quiet eastern Connecticut which is very different. I like both areas but for different reasons. It is a matter of personal opinion which is best. Jay

You got that right! Eastern CT = much less urban overall than Western CT. For urban areas you have Groton/New London, Norwich, little Wilimantic, and the 395 corridor which is more like a string of small towns along the interstate.

[ProudFairfielder]

Originally Posted by KoNgFooCj

You got that right! Eastern CT = much less urban overall than Western CT. For urban areas you have Groton/New London, Norwich, little Wilimantic, and the 395 corridor which is more like a string of small towns along the interstate.

Groton/New London is defintely a respectable urban area (Since NL is only 5 square miles of land I'll combine it with Waterford) and then you've got two 40K + towns on opposite sides of the Thames River. I was just in the area with friends from Fairfield and they were all suprised at how downtown has some relatively large buildings.

That being said, while NL/Groton is an urban cluster, unlike the rest of CT where it's 20 or so minutes to the next cluster it's instead 40 minutes to New Haven and even further elsewhere. It feels much more isoalted.